Combined menu-card and check



UNITED STATES.

PATENT JOHN A. NEWBERRY, OF ROUSE 'S POINT, NEWV YORK.

COMBINED MENU-CARD AND CHECK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 528,889, dated November 6, 1894.

Application filed September 7, 1894. Serial 110,522,367. sp ns) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. NEWBERRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rouses Point, in the county of Clinton and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Menu-Card and Check; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates, generally, to menu cards, and particularly to a combined menu card and meal ticket for use in hotels, restaurants, steamboats, and the dining cars of railway trains, and it has for its object to provide aticket for the purpose named adapted to prevent the fraudulent use'of the ticket by the persons charged with the duty of handling the same, and it consists in providing a menu card in three separate parts, on which the bill of fare is printed on one side, and on two of which the tickets and checks are printed, the whole being so sealed together as to hide from sight the bill of fare and one of the tickets, but yet so arranged as to be readily separated by the guest in order to disclose the bill of fare.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification: Figure 1 is a front or face view of the check; Fig. 2, a view of the reverse side of the check illustrated in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a front or face View of the cooks check; Fig. 4, a View of the reverse side of the cooks check; and Fig. 5 afront or face View of the third card containing the list of articles comprising dessert.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout all the views.

Heretofore combined meal tickets and menu cards have been used in which a single card having two or more tickets or checks printed on one side or face thereof in spaces divided from each other by perforated lines and having the courses forming the bill of fare likewise printed in spaces on the reverse side of the card correspondingto the divisions formed by the lines of perforations. It is obvious that a card of this kind fails to prevent the fraudulent use thereof because the bill of fare is in plain sight of the guest and there is no necessity for him to destroy the card to obtain sight of the same before giving his order to the waiter, and the card may be used over and over again by other guests, thereby rendering such a card useless as a check against dishonesty on the part of Waiters or others charged with the duty of handling the same.

Myinvention obviatesthisobjectionable feature in combined menu cards and meal checks or tickets and provides a card the fraudulent use of which in its original form is rendered impossible, as each guest is compelled to tear 0d a portion of the ticket in order to disclose the bill of fare from which he must give his order to the-waiter.

My improved combined menu card and meal ticket comprises three separate cards each of which is perforated near each end so as to render the detachment ofrthe ends easy, and the three cards are securely fastened together at their ends, one on top of the other, by any suitable adhesive substance.

In the drawings A represents the topv card 7 of which I) is the body portion having printed on the outside face thereof the .name of the railroad company or hotel issuing the same, the number of the ticket and the waiters numbers and such other information as may be desired, and on the end 0 of which is printed the conductors or cashiers check likewise numbered, and thewaiters numbers and on the end at the waiters check is printed which also bears the same number as the body portion 6, and the waiters numbers.

In Fig. 2, the reverse side of card A is shown, the body portion having printed thereon one of the courses, usually the second, of the meal, the end spaces being leftblank and coated with a suitable adhesive substance whereby it may be sealed or glued to the end pieces, 6, of card B, a face view of which is shown in Fig. 3 and the reverse side or face in Fig. 4. On the faceof the body portionf of card B the name of the company, hotel or steamboat, as the case, may be, issuing the ticket is printed thereon and the words Oookscheck, the number of the ticket, the number of the waiter and such other information as may be necessary, while on the reverse side of the card, Fig. 4, is printed one of the courses forming the meal,usu ally the first, the ends 2 of said card being left blank on both sides. The third and last card, 0, comsired.

After the cards are printed card Bis placed between cards A and O and pressed together so that the adhesive substance on the ends of said last named cards may adhere to the ends of card B thus fastening the same firmly together and hiding the bill of fare from sight.

While I have described the cards as perforated and fastened together at their ends I do not desire to be restricted thereto as it is obvious they may be perforated near their longer edges or sides and there secured together in the same manner, or the body portions of the cards may be surrounded by a perforated line outside of which on ends or sides the checks may be printed, but I prefer the form first described as cheap, practical, and secure.

It will be understood from the above description that a complete combined menu card and meal ticket is handed to each guest and that he tears off the conductors or cashiers check and hands the same to that olficial with the price of the meal and likewise tears off the Waiters check which act separates the three cards forming the combination and enables the guest to see the bill of fare, and give the waiter his first order with the cooks check. Thus it will be observed that the ticket is destroyed so as to,prevent its further use as a meal check, but the bill of fare is not destroyed or mutilated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A combined menu card and meal ticket, consisting of a series of cards bearing on one side of each card a part of the courses forming a meal and on the other side of said cards, a check or checks, said cards having portions detachable therefrom and arranged one on the other with the detachable portions adhesively secured together, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN A. NEWBERRY.

Witnessesz J AS. B. STEARNS, J. WALLACE. 

